Tuesday, 17 June 2014

If you were to ask me which Disney character I most resemble, although I would like it to be something more glamorous (like Elsa from Frozen), if I were perfectly honest, it would have to be this chap:

Eeyore!

It may well come across to you that way, as I share about our experiences of eating at Disneyland Paris, but I'll leave that to you to decide.

The thing is, I'd heard such good things about the Disney resorts in the States, that I assumed/hoped/expected that Disneyland Paris would deliver the same goods - especially as its based in a country that prides itself on its gastronomy.

You'd certainly expect good things if you read this, on Twitter:

There are a lot of places to eat, at Disneyland Paris, it is true, and we didn't investigate all of them. We did experiment with eating out in well-known franchises, such as The Rainforest Cafe and also in the Resort's restaurants and hotels. But, as for those sixty allergies?? Well I saw sixteen mentioned in the allergy guide, so I'm a bit puzzled about that one!

As it happens, we soon came to understand (it was spelled out to me by staff at one of the resort's restaurants) that the truth is that although they can provide safe food for those with allergies, the choice is not on a par with what I hear about Disney in the States, from other bloggers, such as Nicola.

What follows is our experience... staying half board. We could have stayed elsewhere and travelled in each day, or stayed in self-catering. Both of these later options will inevitably make your day longer, as you will have further to travel to get in to the parks. Which is why we had opted to stay within the Resort. Hopefully, this post will help you decide which option would be best for you and your family, if food allergies happen to be an issue.

If you look at the website for Disneyland Paris and investigate allergies, you should find this in pdf form, see here.

Hmm!

It outlines the options for those with food allergies at Disneyland Paris. If you are your child is at risk of an anaphylctic shock from exposure to food allergens, you may well be grateful to see this booklet. I can see it would be very reassuring. Planned by a dietitian, it may well be nutritious and balanced, and there appears to be some choice, but when you speak to a member of staff about food allergies and you get handed this:

Yes, that is ice! It's frozen!

a box of frozen food (I kid you not)! Words fail, even me!

And I'm not usually stuck for words.

'Baby' loves Frozen, the movie, but not frozen food! This was no place to 'let it go'!

This was in a resort hotel restaurant.

Please note, there was no starter and definitely no choice. It was that box of food or nothing - or so I was led to believe by the staff member I spoke to. He spoke limited English and I even less French. Lack of language skills or no lack of language skills, one thing was made clear - there was no room for manoeuvre!

Absolutely none!

La Cantina

As we were staying half board, we had vouchers we could use at resort restaurants - one for each person, for each day. 'La Cantina' is the name of the restaurant which serves the resort hotel 'Santa Fe.' The hotel 'Santa Fe' is themed around the Disney 'Cars' film characters. 'Baby' loves this film. We had considered staying at this hotel, before opting for the New York, which had a swimming pool, whereas the Santa Fe did not ('Baby' loves swimming). 'Baby' had been disappointed that we weren't staying at the 'Cars hotel,' so the next best thing, we decided, was to visit for food.

It was a good job there was a small play area, in the dining room, to which 'Baby' was drawn like a magnet, because that deflected slightly the fact that her mother was holding a frozen meal and wondering what to do with it.

It was another guest at a nearby table who noticed my distress, as I explained things to The Hub, who pointed me in the direction of the microwave by the side of the room. 'I think you're supposed to use those,' she said (or words to that affect - English wasn't her first language).

Meanwhile The Hub, who is not a demonstrative type and does not normally like to create a scene, had attracted the attention of some staff member or another and in his frustration was banging the frozen meal on the table, in order to demonstrate that in its current state it was completely inedible.

The staff member made some half-hearted attempt to heat the meal, but we had to finish heating it up ourselves, as it was still covered in ice particles, when it was handed to us.

I was completely flabbergasted that a paying guest was expected to heat their food for themselves... and in a microwave that worked only in 45 second bursts... and then eat it out of the plastic tray it came in. I might as well have bought some food from Ilumi and heated it myself!

I am guessing that the hands-off approach of the staff was to prevent cross-contamination, but to have to heat food in a microwave that other people presumably heated baby food and milk in? Who knows what splatters of cross-contamination lurked inside - that might then be transferred to the plastic tray??

La Cantina served food buffet-style

I helped myself to a clean plate from the servery (it turned out 'La Cantina' served food from a buffet) and scraped the food off the plastic tray and onto the plate. Once heated, it looked a little dry, but it wasn't too unappetising. However, it wasn't a large portion by any means! Being a pre-schooler, she doesn't need too much, but bear in mind that these portions would be served to the allergic child or adult alike.

We took a risk and supplemented the food with boiled rice from the buffet (luckily we were some of the first to arrive, so it was relatively untouched).

Beef with olives (plus rice).

'Baby wasn't that keen. It was a good job that she didn't have siblings to contend with, who had unlimited choice. As it was she helped herself to some ham from The Hub's plate. I wasn't happy, as I know that some cooked hams are cooked with dairy, but thankfully she survived!!

I ate the beef with olives. Despite looking dry, the beef wasn't tough and it actually tasted alright.

Also thankfully, and to my complete surprise, 'Baby' who doesn't always like bananas was more than happy to eat one on this occasion.The Hub, mindful of 'Baby's lack of choice, skipped dessert.

The ManhattanThe following night, we opted to eat in a restaurant at our hotel. The Manhattan Restaurant.

It certainly looked nice!

We hoped that as it appeared to have a more plush appearance, there might be a better experience.Well, we had table linen and table service and we didn't have to heat it ourselves, but the food was straight out of the allergy menu, once again!There was a pile of bread on the table. It looked very appetising. Not knowing what was in it, I had to keep 'Baby' off it. She wasn't impressed! Luckily, we had some ciabatta left over from our trip on Eurostar, I'd brought it down to the restaurant, to keep her busy, whilst waiting, so she had some of that, instead.

Lovely looking bread - but only The Hub could eat it

Bearing in mind that this restaurant was the same at which we had eaten breakfast, I was disappointed not to be offered some of the allergy free bread that we had at breakfast, instead.This time we were offered one of the starter's from the allergy menu. There was only one option (rather than the two indicated on the menu). It came like this:

Straight from the fridge

Et voila!

It was cold. 'Baby' wouldn't touch it. I ate it purely for the experience. It was very tomatoey. I wouldn't recommend it, unless you were desperate to top up your 'five-a-day'.For the main course there were two options this time (there's four on the allergy menu). Thinking swiftly, I ordered the meatballs and rice for 'Baby' and the sausages for me - I didn't mind which I had, but thought there was more chance of 'Baby' eating something if she had a choice between the two.

Baby's meatballs

She did actually stick to her own choice, she seemed to enjoy it but she did tail off after a bit! I sampled some and it tasted better than it looked, but the meatballs were a bit rubbery.Mine came like this:

Attractive?

An improvement on the day before in terms of presentation, to some extent - at least there was a plate!! However, the sausages tasted bland and rubbery. The mash was bland too. Without any vegetables, I considered it rather unbalanced as meals go. Good job I ate that starter!

Looking better!?

Meanwhile The Hub was served this:

A simple chicken dinner

He couldn't understand why we couldn't have been served something similar, to this, may be without the gravy.Dessert was this, for 'Baby':

Cold apple compote

Or this, for me:

Cold caramelised pear

Both cold again. The apple was basically stewed apple. It was quite grainy in texture and very sweet. Obviously commercially produced, it had none of the flavour you'd get from home made stewed apple. I only got 'Baby' to sample it by bribing her with a dairy free chocolate lolly.The 'Caramelised Pear' was basically small chunks of pear in a sugary syrup -just like you can buy fro the supermarket. I ate it purely to balance out the lack of vegetables in the main course! You could tell it was real fruit, because small fragments of peel remained on some of the pieces.The Hub opted for this:

Anyone for fruit?

Again, we failed to see how that couldn't be served to people with allergies, as long as the staff were properly trained in the right kind of protocols.I looked around. Other kids were eating chips and ice cream. Fortunately I don't think 'Baby' noticed! When we got back to our hotel room, I had a sneaky suspicion she was still a bit empty. Good job I had brought these:

Plastic spoon courtesy of Starbucks

Oh, I forgot to say that the value of the voucher for the meal was €33.

We discovered, in fact, that the allergy menu would be presented to us at pretty much all of the resort restaurants, no matter how much the meal cost. Even if we booked a table at the Disney Princesses restaurant, Auberge de Cendrillon (which is pretty pricey), as we had been planning to, we discovered that the same meal would have been served. The Hub was not happy about the idea of paying that kind of money for what amounted to a reheated ready meal (however safe it may be), while other little princesses, at close proximity, would be noshing on other delights.As we discovered you could have a picture taken with a princess for free (well you have to pay for the photos, although you can take your own), by booking a slot at the Princess Pavilion in the park (it's by the 'Small World' ride - you need to queue for a ticket, first), we decided to pass that one up. 'Baby' not knowing about the existence of the Disney Princess restaurant was blissfully unaware of our decision - we made no mention of it, just in case it didn't work out. Which was just as well. If she was a bit older, or had older siblings, or if we went with her cousins, I don't think we would have got away with it.As for me, as an adult, who could reason about the need for safety - over the lack of choice, the experience was completely dispiriting. I would go as far as to say that it ruined my holiday. I tried to be grateful that I had something safe to eat, but having had much better experiences of eating in hotels and restaurants at home in England. I failed miserably. It was a good job that we had the fireworks and light show to look forward to at the end of the day. It was an amazing experience and I was glad not to miss it. But would I do it this way again? I think not. I'd prefer to save my money for now and go to the States.

The actual thing was spectacular - pictures do not do justice!

So am I an Eyeore, or not? Compare our experience, with that of Nicola's (see here) or to get a fuller picture, her blog (here), at Walt Disney World in the States, before you decide...

2 comments:

I can't blame you for being hugely disappointed. What annoys me most is that people with allergies are given substandard food when a much better offering could be made. How about one restaurant that specialises in allergy free food? Or even a company such as Ilumi who produce a high standard of allergy free ready made food? At very least a facility for staff to safely heat a meal for the paying customer. I would have gone home early demanding a refund. If that sounds too ungrateful as I would still have had enough food in tummy I would remind people that this is a huge company with an extensive promotion of allergy friendly food. This level of expectation is misleading if the product is not delivered.

Exactly! And when you hear that they can get it so right at Walt Disney Word in the US, it makes you feel so short-changed. We are planning to save our pennies and got to US if we ever get the chance, but we're not planning a return visit to Paris. xx

Welcome

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